Forum - View topicREVIEW: Alderamin on the Sky BD+DVD
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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I saw the first episode of this way back when it was simulcasting, and i was honestly shocked to hear people were enjoying this later; the first ep was basically like the first chapter to someone's first mediocre light novel (that scene where the 5 characters slowly and tediously introduce themselves in unnatural language being a particular lowlight). From the review, it sounds like things improved quite a bit; maybe i'll go back and give it another go when my anime schedule frees up.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18571 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The first episode may be the series' weakest. While most of the best content comes later, episode 2 shows the series' potential better than episode 1 does so I'd recommend at least checking that out.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5524 Location: Iscandar |
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I actually liked the first episode of Alderamin and though it had a chance to be a really good anime. Bust despite having a decent premise and intriguing elements, the. writers were unable to take advantage of that. I gave Alderamin on the Sky a C+ grade.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4719 |
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This show ended up being pretty frustrating for me. I liked it well enough to watch each episode streaming, but it didn't become truly interesting until the last little scene at the tail end.
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Emdykay
 Posts: 85 |
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Alderamin was actually a pretty decent show and I enjoyed it, but I think its main flaw was that it never really commited to one approach and tone of this "genius young strategist has to win the war" story as either playing it straight, deconstruction or reconstruction.
So we got one episode showing us the enemies soldiers are just people too, their deaths by the hands of our protagonist, deeply disturbing for them and without any kind of glorification. The next episode we see awesome Ikta being super cool while dealing with school bullies, then Yatori freaks out during a small bloodbath and Ikta manages to calm her down with his personality and charm, then back again to kids fighting back against intelligent wolves home alone style. Talk about mood whiplash. Throughout the entire show I was hoping it would finally settle on one approach and focus on its more serious themes, but that sadly never truly happened. Wether this was because the show/novels could not decide or trying to appease different types of viewers I dont know, but it mostly just resulted in a fairly heterogenous story and inconsistent quality, which is a shame because both its deconstructive as reconstructive elements showed a lot of promise and the final twist mentioned in the review is one of the most glorious ways to go about reconstructing such a story I have seen, which makes it a crying shame that its really unlikely we will actually see a second season of this. Last edited by Emdykay on Wed Nov 15, 2017 1:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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meiam
Posts: 3472 |
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I might have watched the first episode (is it the one where they go on a boat and they get stuck on an jungle island or something like that? With a princess or duke daughter?). If so it barely left an impression but it sounds interesting, maybe I should give it another shoot.
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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Enjoyed Alderamin, though I'd agree with the C+ rating angel gave it. Beyond starting with its weakest foot forward, I thought there were a couple bits that seemed like things which worked better in text than visualised. The fairies being cute works as a rather on the nose visual metaphor, but whichever marketer decided they should look like carebears should be figuratively defenestrated, because it just makes every attempt for the show to get "serious" about them look silly.
Also the final "battle of wits" between super-protag & super-antag again seemed like something that would work in text when you can't fully visualise the battlefield, but in adaptation just became: spoiler[Antag:You think I'll run head long into your obvious trap? Ha! I'll walk into it instead!] Oh & the final scene making the whole thing feel like a prologue to a much more interesting story we'll likely never see animated didn't help, either. |
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njprogfan
 Collector Extraordinaire Posts: 1245 Location: A River Named Toms |
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I thought this series was excellent, especially the tactical side. Most of the characters were fleshed out nicely and the animation was fine. I'm not out to buy this right away, but maybe down the road. Pencil me in, though, for a second season!
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DmonHiro
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Hands down one of the most boring fantasy shows I've ever tried sitting though. Made it four episode and I have no interest in going back.
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BlueAlf
 Posts: 1560 |
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IIRC, this was one of those series that's kind of a pain to slog through, but ends up sort of satisfying once you reach the end and finally 'get' it.
I don't fault the anime staff though. I vaguely recall someone saying that the novel series was actually like that too. (Which is why it's more of a cult hit than anything else.) Besides, the production values this series has is actually pretty good. The things is, I remember thinking how the anime's start was actually more interesting than how the novels began. So yeah, it's pretty hard to give comment. |
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Lord Vaultman
Posts: 810 |
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I thoroughly enjoyed the show. But i guess i am a sucker for war tactics and mind games. Honestly though it never felt boring or uninteresting though
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DeTroyes
 Posts: 521 |
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Count me among the people who thoroughly enjoyed this show. I'm still hoping for a sequel series, tho I know its probably a long shot.
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ultimatehaki
Posts: 1090 |
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This show was pretty average for me but I dropped it after 3 episodes because it was basically screaming that the red haired chick was gonna die eventually in the first episode and episode 3 wrote it in stone.
So yeah, wasn't up for that. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I rated Alderamin on the Sky as an 8/10, which does work out to be about a B+. First of all I really liked the characters, especially Yattori and Torway, and even Matthew had some great moments. (I wish Haroma was used a bit more though.) Secondly, I like how the plot isn't about defeating some evil demon king invading your land, but rather the more murkier problem of dealing with your own leaders at home.
What do you do if your own king is uncaring and leads your country into pointless and disastrous wars? How can you follow your own generals when they are incompetent and obsessed with their own glory over the wellbeing of the troops under their command? And should you really put your life on the line to defend a culture that has stagnated due to viewing innovation as heresy and freedom of speech as treason? This was a respectable and enjoyable first season, and it culminated in an exciting cliffhanger centering around the bombshell order that Ikta received from the princess. I do hope a second season is on the cards (and two cours long), because there is so much more story to be told. |
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FD2Raptor
 Posts: 100 Location: Viet Nam |
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The review clearly could have used another editing/proofing pass.
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